"I don't have to give you any explanation at all."
"Then you can hardly expect me to bend to your whims," Victoria said firmly. "If you can't tell me why you want me to avoid pleasant conversation with the gentleman I've been seated next to…"
"I think he considers himself a suitor for you, Victoria."
Victoria threw up her hands. "Why shouldn't he?"
And James found himself at a loss.
She was right, of course. If he wanted her to marry—and he had made it clear, how many times now, that he did want that—then gentlemen should feel welcome to talk to her. There was no other way to achieve his goal. If he persisted in pushing people away from her, she would never find a husband, and he would be stuck with her for the rest of their lives.
Stuck with herno longer felt like the appropriate way to describe that condition, though.
He wasn't jealous. He couldn't be jealous. That didn't make sense. He had no desire to marry, so there was nothing here for him to feel jealous about.
But he had to admit, now that he was faced with the question, that he didn't want her to leave his house. He had told her again and again that he wanted to be rid of her, but the truth was that he didn't want that. He wanted her to stay.
He would miss her when she was gone. It was a reality he hadn't yet confronted, but now he realized that he couldn't ignore it anymore.
Did that mean she was right, and he was jealous?
That couldn't be. His interest in her wasn't romantic. The two of them weren't in love. It was just that he had gotten used to having her around, that was all.
That had to be all it was.
She was staring at him, wide-eyed, hands on her hips, clearly waiting for him to answer her question. Waiting for him to give her some reason why Lord Harbury—or any other man—should be denied the pleasure of her company.
He wanted to give her a reason. But he couldn't, for there was no reason. He was being ridiculous, and he knew it.
Her face seemed to fall slightly, and James thought—did she want him to have come up with something? Did she want to be dissuaded from returning to dinner?
When she had asked him if he was jealous…had she wanted the answer to be yes?
If she had, it was too late. She had seen in his eyes that he had nothing to offer her.
"I'm going back to the table," she told him, and James couldn't argue. He stood and watched in silence as she turned and walked away.
CHAPTER 27
"Iwish you'd been there, Cressida," Victoria told her sister. "Perhaps you could have interpreted his behavior, because I don't know what to think about it."
"I'm stunned that you asked him whether he was jealous," Cressida admitted.
"Do you think it was a mistake to ask him that?"
"No, I think you were probably right to wonder," Cressida said. "I just wouldn't have expected you to ask the question."
"Do you think I'm frightened of him?"
"Not a bit," Cressida told her. "I know you've been wary around men for a while, and I perfectly understand your reason, of course." Cressida had been there when Jonathan had tried to take advantage of Victoria, so she knew all about what had happened. "I don't blame you at all for feeling the way you doabout men," she went on. "But it's been clear to me for a while that you don't feel that way about the duke. I'm not sure what it is about him, but you've quickly become very comfortable with his presence in your life."
"I don't know either," Victoria admitted. "It might be the way we met one another. Something to do with the fact that the first time I saw him, he was a stranger who had entered my home without warning. Nothing he's done since that day has been anywhere near as alarming to me, nor could it be."
"That makes sense," Cressida agreed.
"But if you know I'm not frightened of him, why didn't you think I would ask him whether he was jealous?" Victoria asked.
"Well, I assumed you would avoid the question because you didn't want to know the answer," Cressida said. "I mean, you've been very clear about how little you like him. I just assumed that if he had feelings for you, you would prefer not to know about it, because knowing would mean that you would have to deal with it, and you wouldn't want that. Was I wrong?"
